Student food blog sizzles

Nisreen Galloway ’14 hopes her new website, SimmerMagazine.com, will become the go-to authority for young adults looking for dazzling dining experiences.

The Writing, Literature and Publishing major has spent the past few months developing a blog and online magazine, which are both found on the website, with the help of fellow food fanatics.

“I’m not asking anyone to do anything they weren’t already going to do,” Galloway said of her staff, made up of 10 student volunteers who are foodies.

The photo-focused Simmer Magazine staff snaps pictures of their plates during every noteworthy dining experience—updating their blog and alerting fans on social media about three times a week. That’s not hard to do, considering Emerson’s proximity to a slew of restaurants in downtown Boston, Chinatown, Back Bay, and the South End.

“It’s really easy to get stuck in the same loop of places,” Galloway said. “But right next to Emerson, you have Chinatown and a million Indian and Thai restaurants.”

Even though the foodie genre has already exploded online and on television, Galloway said there aren’t many outlets specifically for college students and young adults in the Boston area—and she hopes her website fills that gap.

“Generally on a Friday night, someone always asks, ‘Where’s the cheap food in this area?’ Or, ‘Where should I take my mom?’” she said.

Simmer Magazine is not recognized as an official student group, but Galloway said that is by design.

“A benefit of not being recognized by the [Student Government Association] is that we can look beyond the Emerson campus,” she said. “I have a vision of this being a Boston–focused food network.”

Simmer Magazine’s website is segmented into several categories, including college discounts, midnight snacks, appetites abroad, keeping warm during winter, and, of course, food photos: oversized, close-up shots of everything from specialty burgers at a Beacon Hill restaurant to a round-up of cupcakes on a “Crazy About Cupcakes” blog post.

Galloway, an Ashland, Massachusetts, native, has written for Em Magazine and Gangsters in Concrete, two Emerson-based magazines. In addition to her WLP major, she’s a minor in Journalism and Entrepreneurial Studies.

“I’ve always had kind of an obsession with food and I love to write,” she said, “so I’m really excited to have this outlet.”